The Empowerment of Female Tv Series Characters on Digital Platforms: An Analysis of the 2023 Blu Tv Series

Abstract

This study focuses on original Turkish TV series from 2023 on Blu TV, the most watched digital platform in Turkey. Blu TV, Turkey's first digital platform, ranked first as the most-watched platform in 2023 with a 38% viewership rate. It was followed by Netflix with 27% and Prime Video with 19%.

In the study, the female characters of two serials that started to be broadcast on Blu TV in 2023 are analyzed. These serials are 'Magarsus' and 'How Do I Fill This Emptiness?'. Female characters in Turkish TV series broadcast on digital platforms are structurally different from the characters that appear in traditional television serials.

Digital female serial characters are at the forefront with their different professions, sexuality, and power. Whether they are ballerinas, writers, cleaners, or the head of a traditional family, these characters are framed as free and independent.

The study is based on the argument that the serial content of digital platforms is more independent and the fiction of characters is more conflict-based. The female characters in these serials are analyzed through Erving Goffman's theory of self-presentation,  under the headings of performance, teams, regional behaviors, role strain, out-of-character, and the art of impression management. It is determined that the female characters analyzed emerge in the free environment of digital, their character development and conflicts about their identities due to their families and societies can easily be felt by the audience in the frontstage and backstage themes.